Carol H Tucker Passionate about knowledge management and organizational development, expert in loan servicing, virtual world denizen and community facilitator, and a DISNEY fan
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beladona Memorial Be warned:in this very rich environment where you can immerse yourself so completely, your emotions will become engaged -- and not everyone is cognizant of that. Among the many excellent features of SL, there is no auto-return on hearts, so be wary of where your's wanders...
The news came across Tuesday morning -- another small community bank, formerly a thrift, was to be sold. It was a sobering moment for me for I had worked there -- hired by the President to help them work out a Supervisory Agreement -- and it was agruably the high-water mark of my career. Now it was fading away....
It made me stop and reflect on my career path -- so many changes in the past 30+ years! In that time, I have worked for nine different employers, such is the existance of a knowledge nomad. All of my employers were small businesses that intimately knew their staff and their customers, with strong ties to the communities around them. The longest time I stayed in one place was 12 years; the shortest time was 9 months. My average time in the other jobs is about 2 1/2 years.
As a side note: Nine employers and not one offered a pension plan. Not all had employer contributions to their 401K, two did not have a 401K program at all -- which explains why after working for 30 years retirement is still very far away for me.
After I started part-time in retail at Mother Goose Shoes, I moved into banking . I started out on the teller line at Equitable Bank, and then moved into he Loan Departmet at C&F where I filled every possible position except collector, but landed in Loan Servicng. So the small community banks have been the bulwark of my career and I have worked at six different organizations, followed up with a non-bank commercial SBA lender and now a CUSO [credit union servicing organizations].
The sizes of the organizations varied but they all qualify as small businesses -- the largest only had about 160 employees and the smallest has four. And what does it say about the perils of small businesses when of the nine? Only TWO remain in business today. Two.
One community bank remains and the CUSO where I am currently. The other seven? The stores that sold good from the factory up in Western Maryland closed after the factory was shut down -- the company didn't survive the retirement of the founder. The bank where I spent 12 years? It was acquired after 65 years of community service. The other community banks were bought or merged with yet other community banks who themselves were sold to yet another bank. The two organizations that were start-ups -- one bank and the non-bank lender? They have now disappeared as well, absorbed by larger organizations.
CEOExpress
As a side note: Nine employers and not one offered a pension plan. Not all had employer contributions to their 401K, two did not have a 401K program at all -- which explains why after working for 30 years retirement is still very far away for me.
The sizes of the organizations varied but they all qualify as small businesses -- the largest only had about 160 employees and the smallest has four. And what does it say about the perils of small businesses when of the nine? Only TWO remain in business today. Two.
One community bank remains and the CUSO where I am currently. The other seven? The stores that sold good from the factory up in Western Maryland closed after the factory was shut down -- the company didn't survive the retirement of the founder. The bank where I spent 12 years? It was acquired after 65 years of community service. The other community banks were bought or merged with yet other community banks who themselves were sold to yet another bank. The two organizations that were start-ups -- one bank and the non-bank lender? They have now disappeared as well, absorbed by larger organizations.
